Study 10

Echinoderm fertilization study

Study Aims:

To quantify the effects of elevated CO2 on fertilisation success, cell division and sperm motility. (This study is dependent on the presence of ripe gametes at the time that we are in the Arctic)

Experiment update:

The urchins that we collected for the urchin physiology expeirment turned out to be ripe – they had well developed gonads full of eggs and sperm. This meant we were able to carry out 3 set of fertilisation experiments at different CO2 levels, each set was carried out at a different temperature: zero degrees C, four degrees C, and 10 degrees C. Take a look at the video below to see how we did the experiments. We were able to count the number of eggs that had reached each stage of development and compare how the rate of development changes in different temperatures and CO2 levels.